And I, brethren, &c.— As a further argument to keep them from glorying in their leaders, St. Paul tells the Corinthians, that, as the preachers of the Gospel, of God's choosing, were mean and illiterate men, so the Gospel was not to be propagated, nor men to be established in the faith, by human learning and eloquence; but by the evidence that it had from the revelation contained in the Old Testament, from the power of God accompanying and confirming it with miracles, and from the influences of the Spirit of God upon the heart, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.
I came not with excellency of speech— With the pomp of language. Doddridge. This may allude to the vain affectation of sublimity and subtilty so common among the Greeks of that age, and very remote from the true eloquence in which our Apostle did so remarkably excel. It has been asserted, that the Apostle laboured under a great impediment in his speech, from a stammering or a squeaking shrillness in his voice. Others choose to apply the words to his defect in oratory, and want of experience in the Greek language:both which may be looked upon as wide of the mark, and not the Apostle's meaning in this verse; which can be no other than that assigned in the beginning of the note. It hence appears, that he was far from taking advantage of a higher education, superior learning, and greater use of the world; and by this conduct put himself upon a level with the other Apostles. But an impostor, whose aim had been power, would have acted a contrary part; he would have availed himself of all those advantages; he would have extolled them as highly as possible; he would have set himself up, by virtue of them, as head of the sect to which he acceded, or at least of the proselytes made by himself. This is no more than was done by every philosopher who formed a school; much more was it natural in one who propagated a new religion. But as his conduct was the reverse, he shewed that he acted upon higher principles than any philosopher, and that same was no motive for his professing himself a Christian, and for endeavouring to make others Christians likewise. By the testimony of God is meant, "what God hath revealed and testified in the Old Testament." The Apostle declares, that, when he preached the Gospel to the Corinthians, he made use of no human science, no insinuations of eloquence, no speculations of philosophy, no embellishments of human learning; all his arguments were, as he tells them, 1 Corinthians 2:4 from the revelation of the Spirit of God, the predictions of the Old Testament, and the miracles which he himself did among them; that their faith might be owing entirely to the Spirit of God, and not to the abilities and wisdom of man. Instead of μαρτυριον, which we render testimony, several ancient manuscripts read μυστηριον, mystery. There may be something said in favour of this reading; for though the Apostle owns the doctrine of the Gospel, dictated by the Spirit of God, to be contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and built upon revelation; yet he every where teaches that it remained in some measure a secret there, not fully understood till they were led into the hidden evangelical meaning of those passages, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the assistance of the Spirit, in the times of the Messiah, and then published to the world by the preachers of the Gospel; and therefore he calls it, especially that part of it which relates to the Gentiles, almost every were μυστηριον, mystery. See particularly Romans 16:25-26. Locke, Wetstein, and Lord Lyttelton on St. Paul's Conversion.